Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Yep, that's my husband standing by the yellow lady holding a sphere. The yellow lady worked hard that night. I hope she got overtime. Ben was the producer of "Pajama Gladiator" while he was at BYU. "Pajama Gladiator" along with "Kites" another BYU student film won Emmys from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (I hope I got that right). They flew him down for the ceremony which was held near Hollywood.

I would normally send Ben on this trip alone and I would stay home and watch the kids. This time, I really wanted to go and share this experience with Ben. We were so lucky to have Abby, Ben's sister come from Utah and watch our kids so I could spend the weekend celebrating with Ben. She was awesome! The kids had a great time with her and I even came home to a clean house!

Glenn, the director of "Pajama Gladiator" and his wife came too. They are some of my favorite people from the BYU animation program. I got butterflies in my stomach as we were eating dinner waiting for the ceremony to begin thanks to Glenn asking Ben every second how he was feeling. It's probably Glenn's fault I had to leave 4 times to go to the bathroom.

Luckily, they served us purple cauliflower and potatoes to calm our nerves.

They had TV actors presenting the awards like Masa Oki, Hiro from "Heroes", Chris O'Donnell, and Timothy Omudson, Lassie from "Psych". Jorge Gutierres and Sandra Equihua from El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera presented the Animation category. I've never heard of them before, but they seemed pretty cool. Ben got to meet and get a picture with them after.

"Kites" won 1st place and "Pajama Gladiator" won 2nd. It was a great day for BYU. I was so proud of Ben and just grateful to be there to share the experience with him.

Here is a picture of all of the winners. We met several of them and they really are great and talented people. Ben was hidden in the back.

After the ceremony, we hung out with many of the people who worked on "Pajama Gladiator". It was amazing to see how many live in California these days. This is Cory and Dan, also, one of my favorites. It was fun to see everyone.

Sunday was the screening of all of the productions. The people who won first place, their film was shown in its entirety and those who won second and third it was shown in a montage. So many people came up to Ben telling him they wished they could have seen the entire piece. It was fun to hear people laughing and enjoying it.

We had a great weekend. We also had time to do the tourist thing. Here are some of the places we visited:

Guinness World of Records, Hollywood Wax Museum, Ripley's Believe it or Not, and the Mann's Chinese Theatre. . .

Eating at Johnny Rockets. . .

I loved watching Ben in his element and listening to conversations that I couldn't even understand. We had so much fun!

Sunday, March 15, 2009

XANDERWe don't buy our kids guns to play with, but it doesn't matter because with boys, anything becomes a gun. A barbie, a stick, and even legos. Xander makes guns out of legos and likes to fight with them. I have given into his imagination and when I get hit, I have a dramatic fall and I add sound effects as I plummet to the ground. Xander used to copy me and it was the funniest thing alive to witness. Now, he just plops himself backwards and says, "I died."

One day I walked into my room and Xander was laying on the bean bag very still with his eyes closed and said, "I died." So this is his new thing to do these days. I was taking Mia to preschool one day and Xander exclaimed as he looked out the window of the car, "People died outside. Right dare." Ben thinks he has the sixth sense.

Here's a picture of Xander dying outside.

Mia

This is a picture of Mia being very sad because I wouldn't let her change into different clothes for no reason. Mia would change 10 times a day if I would let her.

One day we were watching a movie and two black men were dancing. Mia yelled, "Hey they're chocolate. I want to eat them." We had to correct Mia and tell her that we don't call them "chocolate" and told her the right words to use. She's said it several times after this occasion and really thinks that black people are made out of chocolate.One day I took and nap and woke up to this note,a picture, and dead flowers on my nightstand. I love little girls and the notes they give me. CJ is the same way. I love this note in particular because Mia wrote Zoey's name on it. I've made Mia a word wall with words she knows how to read and she practices everyday. Now she is writing the words. I think it's awesome!CJCJ is maturing into a beautiful young lady. My biggest debate lately was when give CJ a training bra. I don't want to be one of those parents who are too late and I also didn't want to jump the gun. I finally decided to give her one. Mia was devasted that she couldn't have one too and was full of tears.

CJ has also been interested in making up cheers with her friends at recess. They have gotten so good, that the principal has asked her friends and her to perform a cheer during testing week. CJ and her friends practiced at recess and came up with this, "Ready. Okay. Go fight, test tonight. Boogie on down, all right, all right!" They have arm actions and a kick for the finale.

In other news. . .My biggest kid finally let me cut his hair. All we had to do to make his experience enjoyable was to give him his IPOD while I cut his hair.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Mr. Porter is a very good learner. He adapts to situations well and learns what will make the best outcome of the situation.

Case 1Sometimes I feel like the best time for Ben and I to talk is when we are in bed. There are no kids or T.V. to distract us. And especially for me, nothing around me to distract me like a dirty kitchen sink or toys to pick up.

One night we hop into bed and I am ready to talk his head off. Instead of saying, "I don't want to talk right now, I'm tired" he says, "I don't want to keep you up tonight, I would hate for you to not get enough sleep." He turns over and instantly falls asleep.

Smart. Very smart, Mr. Porter. I didn't get mad at him at all even though I knew his real intentions. I just chuckled.

Case 2It's time for Ben to get a haircut. He's hairy and I often refer to him when he gets to this stage as Wolverine. He hates getting a haircut more than anything. I have to warn him that he needs a haircut and then slowly ease my way in. Sometimes bribes work for him.

Yesterday I told Ben in the morning I was going to cut his hair. He says okay. The day of course, slips away and it's late at night and I say, "Oh, Ben I forgot to cut your hair." I'm ready to stop what I'm doing and do it right then and there. Ben says, "I forgive you." And takes off as fast as he can.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Lake Chabot is located in Castro Valley and was our new place to discover. They have several hiking trails, paved walking trails and paddle boats, canoes and kayaks to rent. It's also a great place to fish. We took a picnic lunch and ate while watching hawks fly above us and listened to numerous birds chirping around us.There were these birds and then several beautiful blue birds, that were just too quick for us and we didn't get any pictures of them.The highlight of the day was during our walk around the lake, we stopped and let the kids throw rocks into the lake. Xander was in his element and was practically sitting in the lake as he was looking for big rocks to throw.The kids also enjoyed working out at one of the workout stations. We only made them do 20 pull-ups. Ben tried to do a flip on the rings-it was a site to see. I wish I would have gotten a picture of it.Here are some other finds that we thought were funny at Lake Chabot.